Introduction
At first glance, it may seem that rituals and traditions are related only to some special events in a person’s life, but it is necessary to look at this topic a little more broadly. It is essential to look at rituals, traditions, norms, and customs as specific sequences of thoughts and actions; it turns out that this permeates a person’s entire life from an early age to death (Sari and Tur 4). Even going to the bathroom in the morning is also a tradition that is becoming a habit. It is also worth noting that even the road rules are also a norm and a tradition fixed by law.
Definitely, some norms, rules, and traditions as well as their meanings can be easily explained. However, with other rituals and customs, this may be extremely difficult or impossible, but nevertheless, both the first and the second organize the community’s life, streamline it, reduce its conflict, and organize social life (Cavanillas). Human thinking also consists of traditions and customs, commonly called habits. Thus, the longer a person lives, the more habits people have, but they all play their roles and have their meaning (Sari and Tur 5). In this sense, it should be said that rituals and traditions are the habits of society. Moreover, here the important fact is that they are known to be challenging to acquire and even more difficult to change (Cavanillas). Human thinking is generally prone to forming habits, which are understandable and understandable. As a result, social habits are formed, and then they are called rituals and customs.
The Lottery
In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” the author uses the pathological lottery system to symbolize the problems of traditions in modern society. Through the use of symbols embedded in the story in the form of a torn black box and the most terrible lottery, the author highlights the common problem of people. It lies in the fact that they thoughtlessly follow distorted and misunderstood rituals rooted in traditions, and the author warns them about it.
The black box in the story can symbolize age-old traditions and customs that people of all cultures have. This is reflected precisely in the essence of the subject, which is an important value determined by its antiquity (Sari and Tur 1). The described story itself echoes many modern holidays and demonstrates the essence of the lottery drawings accompanying them. The box itself in the story undergoes external changes that reflect how people relate to essential traditional items. All this affects precisely the fact that the older the tradition, the more important it is considered.
An example from our life here is Christmas, which is very deeply rooted in Christian beliefs and originated as a day of celebration of the birthday of Christ. Consequently, it is possible to trace how human traditions are transformed over time, changing their original essence. Many now consider Christmas the time of year to eat lots of food, receive free gifts and storm the nearest stores for the best deals. This is precisely what the author is trying to show the reader, that today’s traditions are a highly modified version of what the ancestors believed in, and people need to be careful blindly following them (Sari and Tur 2). This is determined by the fact that many traditions can carry a completely different essence that is not related to what people believe now.
The lottery itself also seems to be a very symbolic procedure in everyday life that civilians simply accept. The reader sees Mr. Warner, who ridicules the northern village for wanting to abolish the old lottery tradition (Jackson). Thus, the author demonstrates that people were beaten from a very progressive point of view, seeking to abolish a cruel tradition. In this case, it is very similar to the same-sex marriage problem that people face today. The traditional marriage between a man and a woman is given special attention, which is why an alternative point of view is often ignored and condemned.
People who seek to change the attitude of others to a situation are often not accepted in society or subjected to other sanctions. It is worth noting that this also manifests itself in the story itself. When it turns out that Mrs. Hutchinson has become a victim of a lottery, the woman seeks to protest this decision and convince others that it is unfair (Jackson). However, the townspeople quickly reject this request and continue to beat the woman to death. From a moral point of view, these people should understand that it is wrong to kill a person randomly every year, but they do not want to break traditions.
This event in the story is very strongly correlated with the various traditions of religious sacrifice that have arisen in the course of the history of all humanity. They had different goals and reasons, but it is worth understanding that, in fact, this is not the most moral act. The author also correlates this and connects it with the words of old man Warner, who determines the yield of corn with the fact that there will be a lottery soon (Jackson). In both cases, people blindly followed the tradition because they did not look for changes, even if it was for good. Jackson recognizes this dangerous but generally accepted thinking in the modern era and illustrates the potential dystopian outcome if people do not learn to adapt their way of thinking.
Conclusion
If all norms, rites, rituals, traditions, and customs are simultaneously abolished, and information about them is erased from the memory of all participants in society, then the chaos will immediately begin. Because the norms of behavior, although not always reasonable, but understandable and predictable, permeate human behavior, and organize it. In a society in which there is absolutely no such organizing and ordering phenomenon as traditions, the conflict will immediately and significantly increase, all social institutions of society will fail. It should be noted that such a society will atomize and begin to disintegrate since a social system can exist only in conditions when its elements interact effectively with each other.
When the information about effective interaction is lost, the system disintegrates. In addition, after the separation of the social system into the most straightforward structures, a new round of organization will begin, when people again begin to form new orders, rules, and customs for interacting with each other from scratch. The process of generating customs, norms, and orders will be relaunched, and the same or similar norms of behavior will be developed again, which will be able to unite people, streamline their communication and contacts, reduce conflict and increase the effectiveness of interaction. Therefore, an important aspect is the most accurate approach to rethinking the reality in which people exist.
Works Cited
Cavanillas, Puebla. “Why Is Culture So Important to Our Lives.” The Grand, 2021, Web.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” The New Yorker, 1948, Web.
Sari, Fani Alfionita and Ajar Pradika Ananta Tur. “Reshaping the Society Face Through the Culture of Horror Told in Shirley Jackson’s the Lottery.” Notion: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Culture, vol. 1, 2019, pp. 1–7.